Immigration Control Platform

The ICP has not applied for political party status,[2] although it is registered as a "Third Party" by the Standards in Public Office Commission[3] Its website describes it as follows:[4]

• The aim of the organisation is to address the phenomenon of immigration to Ireland and to lobby Government for a tight immigration policy.
• The organisation aims at a very rigorous policy in relation to asylum-seekers, refugees, and a determined response to all illegal immigration.
• No one who holds views of racial superiority is welcome in the group.

ICP's main activities are writing letters to newspapers, issuing press releases, and maintaining a website.[5] It has also issued leaflets and occasionally held small protests and pickets.[5] It has an Executive Committee elected by the membership at its AGM. It claims to be funded by membership fees and private donations. Its leaders have described it as a single-issue group.[6] Judith Pryor interprets its policy as favouring white immigrants over non-whites.[1] ICP denies being racist.[7][8]

ICP has no policy on Irish illegal immigration to the United States, an issue sometimes linked with immigration to Ireland.[6] ICP candidate Ted Neville had himself spent time illegally in the United States.[9]

ICP's most prominent member is Áine Ní Chonaill, whose official title is public relations officer.[10] A schoolteacher from Clonakilty, she stood in Cork South-West in the 1997 general election as an independent on an anti-immigration platform, winning 0.84% of the first-preference vote.[11] The election came early in the Celtic Tiger economic boom and an increase in asylum seekers from Eastern Europe and further afield. ICP was founded at a meeting organised by Ní Chonaill in Ennis on 13 January 1998.[12] The meeting was disrupted by anti-racism activists, and the venues of later ICP conferences was not disclosed in advance.[12][13]

Harry McGee in 2003 described Irish media coverage of ICP as disproportionate to its small size and generally hostile to its views.[10] ICP has refused to tell the media or Oireachtas how many members it has.[14][15]

In 2003 Ní Chonaill along with then-chairman John Oakes attended a discussion on immigration at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights.[16] Ní Chonaill felt that a January 2003 Supreme Court decision, which permitted deportation of illegal immigrants with Irish-born children, did not go far enough.[16][17] ICP supported the successful 2004 referendum which restricted citizenship by birth, a practice ICP said encouraged birth tourism by pregnant illegal immigrants. Ní Chonaill and Ted Neville of ICP spoke at the Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality on 1 April 2015.[6][15] Anne Ferris was made to withdraw a comment comparing ICP's views to Auschwitz.[6][15]

Note

• Identity Ireland
• Pegida Ireland
• National Party (Ireland)

• Official site